The following picture are from this photo blog, operated by a photographer/journalist from the Haidong Prefecture in Qinghai Province of China/Tibet who has been recording much of the relief efforts since the earthquake.

The pictures are graphic, disturbing and a shocking reminder of the effect of this earthquake as well as a reminder of how many people are putting together resources and time to lend aid. The following is the photographer’s comment translated through google.

17, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai earthquake remains of nearly a thousand victims placed in the temple after three days of mass cremation, thousands of families live tearful farewell to their loved ones, hundreds of monks in the Buddha led prayers for the dead souls from purgatory to the dead with dignity, to living in comfort.

Day morning, presided over the cremation of the knot temple monks to focus on the bodies of victims in the temple town in batches shipped to the southern end of the Tashi Chase celestial rock halfway up the mountain, carefully placed in the temporary excavation of cremation in the desks. “Tashi Chase” in the Tibetan language is the meaning of good fortune and peace.

I found particularly stirring the images of the mass cremation of the dead by Tibetan monks.

get our newsletter

Email

About
John Pappas

John Pappas is a struggling Zen practitioner with a slight Vajrayana palate (but he won't admit it) stumbling between the relative and absolute through the Buddhist Purgatory otherwise known as the Great Plains of South Dakota. Emerging writer, librarian and aspiring hungry ghost, John spews his skewed perception of the dharma all over his personal blog, Subtle Dharma Mouth Punch as well as on the ephemeral Elephant Journal and occasionally (while having no artistic ability to speak of) on Dharma/Arte. John also loves tacos, homebrew, yoginis and obscure Cthulhu references. You can follow him on twitter under the handle @zendustzendirt

Comments

4813910 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.elephantjournal.com%2F2010%2F04%2Fmonks-and-laypersons-work-to-recover-from-earthquake%2FPhotos%3A+Monks+and+laypersons+work+to+recover+from+Tibet+earthquake.2010-04-17+20%3A19%3A36John+Pappashttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.elephantjournal.com%2F%3Fp%3D48139 to “Photos: Monks and laypersons work to recover from Tibet earthquake.”

Via LC:
In the midst of the immense destruction and loss of life in Jyekundo and the surrounding area, I've been strongly struck by how hard so many people there are working to help those who are in need. Perhaps this is coming through more vividly for me because I've had the opportunity to speak briefly by cellphone each day with Khenpo Tsering of Surmang Dutsi Til. (Astonishingly, cell phones are still working intermittently, even though all power and landlines are out). The team which has come up from Surmang Dutsi Til, which is now more than thirty people, is clearly working as hard as they can to be helpful to people. And they are far from being the only ones.

The vigor which the many monks now at work in Jyekundo are bringing to the task comes through in the short video linked below.

One is also struck by how central their dharma practice is to the monks who are helping with the earthquake relief. Most obviously, as numerous reports have stated, it is because they are doing practices for those who have died. Indeed, a video about Thrangu monastery indicates that some monks who have been on three year retreat are doing practices for the dead full time. Khenpo Tsering told me that a very important part of the family visits each day for Trungpa XII Rinpoche and Aten Rinpoche and him is doing practices for the dead.

At the same time, one can't help but feel that the strength of their practice is closely related to how quickly and wholeheartedly the monks have jumped in to start helping in whatever way that is needed. (I'm sorry to not mention nuns, but I just don't have any word yet about nuns.) It's been inspiring to feel a little tingle of the energy of this bodhisattva activity, coming through even at this remove.

In my conversations with Khenpo Tsering, he is most interested to know about those who are practicing on behalf of those who have died in the earthquake. He regarded it as very important news that H.H. Karmapa has arranged for many monks in India to do practices for those who have died. He has already requested that people from the Shambhala community in the West do practices for those who have suffered in this earthquake, especially for those who died.

I think it really ought to be noted as well that, however dubious the motivations of the Chinese government might be, and as unprecedented as this seems to be relative to Tibet, it seems clear that a number of the Chinese soldiers in Jyekundo are really trying to be helpful. Whether this actually bodes anything for the future seems unfathomable but it is such a departure from the history of the past sixty years in Tibet, that it shouldn't go unnoticed.

Sunday event in Boulder, netcast worldwide. It's important to note that the Boulder Shambhala community has organized a special event for the Jyekundo earthquake at 7:00 Mountain time on Sunday evening…you may have seen the announcement on Shambhala News Service. The event will include practices for those who have died in the earthquake. As the announcement notes, this is being made available to everyone via Shambhala Online. It is wonderful if everyone can include those who have suffered because of the earthquake in their personal practices but this is also an opportunity to get together as a group or as a center, wherever your location.

However, we may be able to do so, including the financial generosity that so many people have now expressed, this is a special time to connect our hearts and minds with those of our Tibetan family. Not only in their sadness but also in their inspiration.

Field update from Tamdin Wandu, founder of the Tibetan Village Project. He is currently in Tibet immersed in relief efforts:

April 21st:
"This morning we woke to 2 inches of fresh snow here in Xining; on the highway we heard there is up to 6 inches in places, and in Yushu it is cold, windy and miserable. At 10 a.m. this morning Xining came to a standstill for three minutes in honor of the Yushu victims, and it sounded like everyone in town leaned on the horns. Looking out the window through light snow, butter lamps lit in the small shrine in the courtyard added a faint glow to two huge trucks being loaded with supplies – it was surreal and immensely sad.
Tears flowed freely amongst our team here.
In Yushu, the team conducted more successful supply distributions and widened the range of our community assessments. There are now plenty of supplies for the next few days, so our shopping and packing team took a well-earned rest.
Tomorrow, they'll be back at it again…"

Just one 4-truck convoy of food, rice, noodles, water, tents purchased locally in Xining cost $17,000. If you can help, please send donations to one or other of the international NGOs that are helping in this work. It is difficult for local NGOs in China to receive foreign funds directly, so for the moment we recommend sending funds to international NGOs such as these, who will purchase supplies directly in the area.

[…] After the April 14th earthquake that killed more than 2,180 people and injured more that 12,000, it was amazing to see in the wake of a brutal and devastating event, so many in Tibet pulled together to provide aid and support to the regions hit the hardest. Some of the most moving images for me were Tibetan monks providing funeral services for a large numb… […]

[…] Earthquake in Tibet, Initial Reactions from Tibetan Netizens Posted by High Peaks Pure Earth in Global Contributors, SFT Global on 04 14th, 2010 | one response It has been reported both by Chinese state media and Western media that a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck in Tibet early this morning, April 14, 2010. Whilst Chinese media refers to the affected area as the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu (玉树) in Qinghai province, Western media has been calling it Western or North Western China inhabited by “ethnic Tibetans” or part of the “Tibetan plateau”. In fact, the area known in Tibetan as Kyegundo (སྐྱེ་རྒུ་མདོ། skye rgu mdo) is considered by Tibetans to traditionally be part of Kham, eastern Tibet. Although spelt Kyegundo, when spoken it sounds more like Jyekundo. This Google map shows the position of Kyegundo in relation both to Lhasa and also to the provincial capitals of Qinghai and Gansu, Xining and Lanzhou, to the north east. Here is the link to the map on the website of Tibetan and Himalayan Library, an excellent resource site. Whilst media reports on the technical details of the natural disaster and the ongoing aid efforts, High Peaks Pure Earth has been looking at the online responses by Tibetans as expressed on blogs and social networking sites. Just hours after the earthquake, Tibetan netizens were expressing their grief and anxiety. These Tibetans wrote the following status updates on a Chinese language social networking site for Tibetans and seem to be mostly Tibetan students based in Chinese urban centres: earthquake-in-tibet-initial-reactions-from-tibetan-netizens earthquake_in_yushu_china.html monks-and-laypersons-work-to-recover-from-earthquake […]